Science Fiction... Sweaters?

Over the last century or so of science fiction writing and film, there have been many iterations of garments posited for the far future. From sleek jumpsuits, to nakedness, to Dejah Thoris's jeweled harnesses to the Star Trek redshirt... Now that we are living in the science fiction present, what does the reality for fashion look like? Apparel that is advanced beyond just woven fibers into high-tech data collecting, temperature regulating supersuits? 

Well, they might look like fluffy snuggly sweaters. 

"Current wearables utilize conventional batteries, which are bulky and uncomfortable, and can impose design limitations to the final product," they write. "Therefore, the development of flexible, electrochemically and electromechanically active yarns, which can be engineered and knitted into full fabrics provide new and practical insights for the scalable production of textile-based devices."

The team reported that its conductive yarn packs more conductive material into the fibers and can be knitted by a standard industrial knitting machine to produce a textile with top-notch electrical performance capabilities. This combination of ability and durability stands apart from the rest of the functional fabric field today.

Most attempts to turn textiles into wearable technology use stiff metallic fibers that alter the texture and physical behavior of the fabric. Other attempts to make conductive textiles using silver nanoparticles and graphene and other carbon materials raise environmental concerns and come up short on performance requirements. And the coating methods that are successfully able to apply enough material to a textile substrate to make it highly conductive also tend to make the yarns and fabrics too brittle to withstand normal wear and tear.

"Some of the biggest challenges in our field are developing innovative functional yarns at scale that are robust enough to be integrated into the textile manufacturing process and withstand washing," Dion said. "We believe that demonstrating the manufacturability of any new conductive yarn during experimental stages is crucial. High electrical conductivity and electrochemical performance are important, but so are conductive yarns that can be produced by a simple and scalable process with suitable mechanical properties for textile integration. All must be taken into consideration for the successful development of the next-generation devices that can be worn like everyday garments." -- Read more... 

But wait, there's more! 

Clothing that can keep you cool? Might mean that you're wearing that fisherman's sweater on the hottest summer day. 

"By employing opposite directions of twist and coiling, we engineered fibers that cool when stretched," said Baughman, the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. "This is quite unusual behavior since ordinary materials heat up when stretched."  --Read More

Snuggle up and see what they come up with next! Isn't science amazing?